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Hokitika Guardian, 28 May 1924, Page 2

A Nkw 7.v..\ r.ANiirat who visited the Cotnineiit lately states that in Eram-e both in town and country, there i.s practically no unemployment. Tn midwinter Inst official figures gave tlie number of unemployed as 1313. and I was informed that in summer and autumn it is only about 300; a great contrast to England, whore not long ago the number of unemployed was well over two millions. The saddest ami the commonest sight in London is the large number of hopeless workless People, many of them war veterans, in tlie streets, trying to keep body and soul together by selling matches, nr l»y other expedients. There is nothing of a similar nature in Paris. Many explanations are given of this difference between France and, England, but probably the close suit-division of the land in France has something to do with it. “Tlie stately homes of England,” with their lovely parks enclosing square miles of rich, fertile land, are no doubt very beautiful, but a French countryside with its small holdings, employing numbers of industrious contented and prosperous peasants. is a more pleasing sight to an economist.

The marvellous manner in which France has repaired the enormous damage, jnflicted on her north-eastern P ro ~

vinces „by the German invasion. fills one with admiration. During the years since the peace, the nation, has .worked with the spirit that enabled it to pay off so quickly the crushing burden laid upon it by the victorious I’russjnns in 1870. and the results are astounding. New Zealanders who fought on the .Somme or the Y.ser would now have great difficulty in reeognising the places they were once familiar with. The endless maze of trenches, shellholes. and barbed wire entanglemeTits have been filled in or cleared away, the ruined houses, and villages have been rebuilt, the devastated fields rolevelled, and put under cultivation, the nrdiHuls replanted, the roads and railways relaid, the canals and bridges restored, the factories and coal-mines put into working order again, and the greater part of the war area is now in lieticr condition than Itcfore the onslaught of the Huns.

Tun work of restoting the devastated regions has so lar cost France the cno'.mutts sum of 120 milliards o* francs of which amount t!8 milliards have been expended in the actual work of reconstruction. 85 milliards as reimbursements to individuals and companies for damages sustained, and 17 milliards interest charges during the years the work has been going on. Tlte sum is commensurate with the results achieved, as a consequence of which over four million persons, refuged in other purls of France, have since 11• If) been tel tinted to their homes. Of 8.270.00.) acres of farm land shattered liv war. seven and a half millions have been resulted In cultivation in their pre-war condition. Of 872 million cubic yards of trenches, more than 820 million have been tilled in. ami of 800 million square yards ol barbed wire entanglements more than 800 million have been removed. Out of 2i.0t)0 factories destroyed nr badly damaged, mine than twenty thousand are again tit work. Of 1.808 kilnnietio> of railways requiring reconstruction. 1500 have been rclaiil, anil of 1020 kilometres of canals. 1 1-50 have been restored. A.ml out ol 7*11.088 destroyed or seriously damaged liou-cs mote than 008.(101) have now been rebuilt, ft is stated that liv the end of 1820. and with it further expenditure of about thirty milliards of francs, the whole of the war damages will have Ills'll repaired, and the nine devastated piovitici's be in better rendition than in 1811. Truly a wonderful work of a wonderful people! I lie money tor tin** huge expenditure and the labour involved bad come largely from French source-, it convincing tnooi ot the inherent vitality of the French mil ion. That a country iu.M emerged from the most bloody and destructive war of history should be able to pui forth Midi an effort is little short of a miracle.